new crew member

a new fourlegger has joined our pack!

her name is lilly (or lili or lily or... her spelling is not that great yet), and she's been with us just a bit over a week now.
she's a 1-year old vizsla, straight from hungary. how she came to us is a bit of a long story:

some guy got her as a puppy because he wanted a hunting dog. then he realised that he actually did not have the time to train her or do anything with her at all . that's how she ended up with the man's father who took her in. he's running a farm and is fully occupied with that so also there she didn't get a lot of attention but was free to roam the yard, slept in the barn with the goats etc. and was generally underoccupied. the old man knew that this was not ideal and put out the word that he was looking for a new home for her.

my father got to hear of this through a hunter friend of his who knew someone who hard heard from someone... he also knew the litter that she came from and thought we should have a look at this dog, could be a good match. so i got on the phone with the farmer and after a few calls everything was arranged and she could get on the big journey to amsterdam. my parents brought them to germany where i picked her up.

despite her history she seems well socialised and very open to new things, always inquisitive and a bit cautious where appropriate but not easily scared. a very robust personality. ouf course she's still a bigger puppy and typically playful.
she adapts really well and learns fast. her first week of bootcamp she absolved with flying colours: she learned to walk on the leash, responds when called, and generally pays attention. she's also absolved her first tram and bus trips. that's a good start!

we're super happy. after blix died over a year ago it's great to have a furry companion again.
now the real question is: how long before she can embark on her first canoe trip?

She is a fine looking girl. She will have a lot of energy but is bound to be smart too so will no doubt thrive on the direction she is getting. I am sure she will take to the canoe easily enough. I've yet to find a dog that does not adapt well when properly introduced.

thanks john!
she comes from a hunter who breeds them for work, for himself and his friends - definitely not showroom model. so what you say is very true.
i'm not worried about the canoe thing, just want to get at least some basic training done with her so i can control her in the boat.

definitely no sofa dogs in this house! we know what we're getting ourselves into, it's a conscious choice. blix wasn't exactly lethargic, either.
i'm impressed how level-headed she is. coming from a farm into the city she's not disturbed by anything so far: people, trams, buses... it's all good.

it's been about a month now since lili came to us. looking back she really came a long way.

she not only completely settled in and recognises her "pack" now, she's also learned to ride the tram, walk calmly over busy markets and has visited some restaurants and parties with us - all completely new to her but she took it in stride and can really accompany us anywhere.

also all the basic doggie lessons are done. she walks on the leash, comes when called, sits, stays, fetches balls and stick (most of the time) etc. actually these things she does now already better than 80% of the dogs in the neighbourhood (which is not saying much...). the important thing is that we can trust her almost anywhere on or off the leash.
i even started introducing her to game. rabbits, hares and birds. she's of course excited/interested but i can actually control her. she can be called off or made to stay put which is really amazing after only a month.

of course there's also paytime. she's made friends with all the neighbourhood's dogs by now and getting on well with most of them.

she's also had a couple of real adventures already: a 3m drop into the rhine canal from which i had to rescue her via a ladder (now we know she can swim!) and a bloody fight with some out-of-control dog who wanted her dead.

so i think basic bootcamp is done - and with flying colours!
there's still work to be done, more advanced training and i think we can already start with that. no doubt she will do well.

so lots of dog-time at the moment and little canoe-time but that's alright. this is not only fun, it's also a great investment into our future.

Great to hear she is coming along so well. It amazes me that more people do not realise you can have so much more fun they can have with their dog when it is trained and can be trusted. It opens up so many more things to do and places to go.

yes indeed. it saddens me to think how many dogs are excluded from their "pack's" life because people think they need to leave them in the house or yard while they do things that could perfectly be shared with a well behaved dog. for such social animals this just does not seem right. and then people complain about the "crazy beast" becoming destructive and such...

anyway, lili is very much attached to us. so much that we consciously need to get her used to being alone sometimes. we can and try to include her in our lives as much as possible but some days we can both have work stuff that takes us away from home for some hours. she's not been dealing with it too well, maybe due to the fact that she's been abandoned by 2 previous owners who were both not that ideal to start with, this early in her life. of courses she does not know that she's with us for life, for the better or worse!
so we've been trying to get her used slowly to being alone, and not get too anxious about it. in the beginning she did things like scratch the door like crazy, bark or whinge loudly etc. now that's better.

i'm consciously staying away now, watching her from the office via a video chat on skype that i set up, and everything's been good so far today. she's just doing doggie things like sleeping, playing with some chew toy, rolling on her back... mostly sleeping.
this is the longest we've left her in the house alone so far and thanks to this skype thing we know that everything is fine.

The problem of people not properly training their dogs is a double whammy. It means they can't take their dog to as many places and also it means that shopkeepers etc have seen so many out of control dogs that they just ban them which excludes the well behaved ones.

And it is not just what people consider "training" which most people think of as sit, stay and heel. Being comfortable being left alone is important too. It means we can take Sam for a long walk somewhere and know she will sit happily in the car for half an hour while we get a snack (of course not in any way in a situation where she will get heatstroke).

We have friends who have 5 dogs that are pretty well trained but they have never bothered to get them used to being in the car. They live in the centre of Glasgow so their dogs only know being walked to and at the local park. No canoe trips, no camping trips no trips away staying with friends or day tips to the local countryside. All for the want of getting your dog used to being in a car and not being carsick. I just don't understand it.

ok now that we're ranting: we have neighbours who leave their beagle at home, alone, all day, every day. then when they do stuff on the weekend, like visit family who live in a village in the country (the guy's brother runs a restaurant or bar out in the forest) they also leave the dog at home. their excuse is: you know how he is, he's kinda authistic and doesn't really socialise well. of course he doesn't if all he ever sees is the inside of their place (actually the hallway where they lock him in) or a short walk through the park with one of them.

or the other guy whose dog goes berserk whenever they pass another human or other dog... and what does the guy do every single time? yank back on the leash and twirls the dog around and yells at him. how can he ever learn to be calm that way??

yes i have my fair share of disfunctional human-canine relationships around. i used to walk or watch a few of the neighbourhood doogs after blix died, while we didn't have one. it frustrated me to see all the damage and not being able to do anything about it in the short time i had them. talked to some of the humans, though. sometimes it helps to make them think - most of the time it doesn't.

[and now i miss that "banging head against wall" smiley that we have in sotp]

i'm home by now and it's really interesting to see with he skype connection on the phone, at what point they realise that you're approaching. much earlier than i would have thought. this explains why my previous attempts to spy on her the old fashioned way, by sitting somewhere outside the door and listening, didn't work.
i'm totally sold on this high-tech dog whispering. so much so that i'm off to get an IP cam!